Simba2020

I absolutely believe he'll make it although not a first ballot guy. However, how would Molina not make it in? I believe he will be an easy first ballot guy.

None of the trades that the Braves made were the going for it moves. Typically going for it moves are trading for a Sabathia, Greinke, etc. Not dumpster diving which is what some on here would have called the trades if it was the Brewers trading for those players. They had zero starting caliber outfielders on their team before making those four trades. Obviously they could have done nothing and stayed home. They felt the East was winnable and they had to add players that were worthy of starting. You can call it dumpster diving but what other choice did they have to make, other than quitting? And they needed all four. Acquiring one stud wasn't going to do them any good when they still would have been starting two other bums regularly.

The “as many shots at the Postseason as possible” is the right approach. In baseball, more than any other professional sport, the regular season tells you who the true best teams are and the Postseason is a tournament where quite literally any of the participating teams can win it. Not only that but the Braves literally picked up scrap heap type of players during the deadline and before the deadline. These are the players the Braves traded for: Pederson, Rosario, Duvall, Soler and Rodriguez. Which one of the four was this big time acquisition and the Braves are going for it move? When the Braves acquired Soler this was his slash line: .192/.288/.370 Rosario: .254/.296/.389 Duvall: .229/.277/.478 Rodriguez: 2.82 ERA Pederson: .230/.300/.418 If you just look at the numbers it would be Rodriguez who was the best acquisition at the time for the Braves. So again you don't have to go all in to make the World Series or to even win it. Playoff baseball is basically just random luck and you hope that the random luck is on your side. If it were acquiring players then the Dodgers should have won as they added Scherzer and Turner at the deadline. Scherzer and Turner are far better players than what the Braves traded for and I am not even sure the value or the hype of what the Braves did would even add up to the Scherzer and Turner acquisition. The going for it move(s) were the four outfielders. Before the trades, the Braves outfield was Almonte, Heredia and Arcia. They were 44-46 at the time and destined for an early vacation if they didn't add the outfielders. It was obvious the type of player they wanted. Low average, low OBP guys but all with loads of power as each had a 30+ homer year in his career, Soler 48. What's misleading about regular season records is the depth of a team's rotation. The Brewers had a much deeper rotation, six legitimate starters. The Braves had three, at least after Ynoa broke his hand. You will definitely win more games in the regular season with that depth but it doesn't do all that much for you come the playoffs. The Braves during their heyday never figured that out. They basically insisted on having the best 5 man rotation in baseball which often left them with a lousy bench and bullpen. Sure it helped them make the playoffs year after year but it wasn't then, and really isn't today, the best recipe to win the World Series. So to me it's clear, the Brewers had the best regular season team when compared with Atlanta, but the Braves were the superior playoff team.

I'd argue that Ashby, Perez and Wiemer are all currently valued substantially higher than anyone in the Yelich package not named Brinson. Harrison was coming off a nice season, so his value was decent (10-15 range Brewers prospect wise). Diaz had a terrible year, but had prospect pedigree and perhaps was still ranked around 10-ish. Yamamoto was much further down the line, probably in the 20s. Mitchell, Ashby, Perez and Wiemer are legit Top 5 organization prospects. Brinson was top 20 prospect in baseball per Baseball America and Harrison was #75 at the time of the trade. Diaz was the team's 9th best prospect and I suspect Yamamato was just outside the top 30. I never quite got the love for Harrison but it did look like he had turned the corner some after the 2017 season. MLB had him as the Marlins #3 prospect. Either way, Harrison was viewed as a better prospect at the time than Perez or Wiemer today, certainly not substantially less so.

I agree it has gotten so ridiculous. They just have to adopt a pitch clock and I sure hope sooner than later, the robo umps. Baseball would be instantly better in my mind and I think most fans minds as well.

Nope, especially since the league is now figuring out that he is not a threat, and if they were pitching around him the past two seasons, that will surely stop in the future now that they know he is not the same player as 2018 and 2019. Correct. They have already figured it out. He drew 40 walks in 196 PAs the first 3 months, 30 in 279 PAs afterwards. The OBP fell from .403 to .333. He's not even close to a .360-.370 OBP now that many people still seem to think he is.

I'm definitely up for trading Hader. I just don't care for a player that knowing the bullpen is depleted, no Suter, no Williams, elimination game, and he still refuses to go more than 1 inning. Seattle loves to deal and doesn't have a regular closer. How about Hader for Ty France? I would prefer to not trade Hader for prospects but for somebody with at least some track record. Teoscar Hernandez would be another guy but I think he has only one year of control remaining.

If Khris Davis could play in the OF, Hiura probably could too. Doesn't mean you'd want to see it.

Is that due to the coach or a team philosophy? I know the team is geared to sabre and I think the sabre approach to hitting is in a transitional phase right now. Batters for the last decade didn't care about striking out, didn't learn to use the whole field and generally swing for the fences every pitch. Suddenly pitchers learned to throw harder, use the spin of their pitches better and the defenses learned some hitters can't hit certain parts of the field if they got to hit off a tee and adjusted accordingly. Suddenly the types of hitters being drafted and the way they're developed have to change. Maybe we haven't figured out what to look for or how to develop that yet. That isn't to say I disagree with a statistical analysis approach. Just saying that approach needs to be adjusted as the league adjusts. I wonder about that too. Stearns has been weened on strikeouts. Houston was 1-2-2 in Ks during his tenure there and the Brewers have been 1-1-7-5-2-7. There has been some minor improvement the past few years but it continues to be a glaring issue.

Right. I was 16 at the time and that definitely factors into why I will never want to forget that late 70s/Early 80s Brewer era. From 1978 through 1982 were definitely my favorite Brewer teams. I especially loved the 1978 team. George Bamberger named manager. Finally someone to lead us with a name and a proven track record. An increase of 26 wins from the season before and finally in contention for a penant with 90+ victories. A Robin Yount holdout threating to become an PGA professional. And who do they get to replace him, Paul (the Ignitor) Molitor. Cecil Cooper, Sal Bando, Molitor and Yount on the infield. A loaded outfield of Larry Hisle, Gorman Thomas and Sixto Lezcano. Think they would have only scored 6 runs against the Braves? A bench of Don Money, Ben Oglivie and a young Jim Gantner and Charlie Moore. A young and promising pitching staff lead by Mike Caldwell's 22 wins and Larry Sorenson's 18. With young pitchers such as Jerry Augustine, Bill Travers, Moose Haas and Bob McClure. Of course like any other staff some of those guys flamed out but we never had promise like that, the past 8 years. We started the season with a 5 game homestand. First off was Baltimore the second place team in '77 with 97 wins. We swept and outscored the Orioles 40-11 in the first series. Sixto, Gorman and Cecil hit grand salamis in each game. How to follow that series up but by sweeping a 2 game set against World Champ Yankees. What an unbelieveable start. The city of Milwaukee was on fire with this team. You could tell this was a start to a magical summer. Totally agree. We first got a little serious with the signing of Bando in 1977 and made the key trades for Cooper and Caldwell but we still didn't perform any better. Then they sign Hisle, trade for Oglivie and Caldwell took off and everything changed. Fortunately we got Gorman back after giving him away in 1977 too. Good times.

What about in Game 1 of the NLDS when he closed out a one run game to secure the victory? Or the three games in a row he finished up against the Mets to wrap up the division title at home? All four of those game were pretty recent & meaningful. He barely saved the first game and shutting down a Mets team that lost 11 of 12 doesn't mean too much to me.

What about in Game 1 of the NLDS when he closed out a one run game to secure the victory? Or the three games in a row he finished up against the Mets to wrap up the division title at home? All four of those game were pretty recent & meaningful. He barely saved the first game and shutting down a Mets team that lost 11 of 12 doesn't mean too much to me.

We had four postseason games this year. Hader saved the first one, wouldn't have mattered which inning(s) he pitched in the other two, and gave up go ahead HR in the last game. I don't really see how leveraging him for a multi inning role would have changed the 2021 postseason results at all. In the end it might not have mattered. But what if he tosses a scoreless 8th and the game remains tied. Then he isn't around for the 9th. Again, I have a problem with that. I also would have let Woodruff pitch the 8th and have Hader ready to go 2+ innings if need be. However, Hader forced Counsell's hand. I don't want players dictating to the manager how to manage.

Hader's performance & value were greater throwing 1 IP in a traditional closer's role this year than they were in his 2018-19 multi inning appearance fireman role... 2018: 55 G | 81 IP | 60 ERA- | 54 FIP- | 2.6 rWAR | 2.6 fWAR | +3.30 WPA 2019: 61 G | 75 IP | 59 ERA- | 69 FIP- | 2.8 rWAR | 2.3 fWAR | +3.15 WPA 2021: 60 G | 58 IP | 29 ERA- | 39 FIP- | 3.4 rWAR | 2.6 fWAR | +4.93 WPA I won't argue with his usage during the regular season. But if the guy is unwilling to throw more than one inning in an elimination game with a depleted pen, yeah I have a big problem with that.

I hate the $8-$10 per WAR figure used to justify a contract. Free agents get paid $3 to $5 million per historical WAR, more or less. Because so many long-term contracts become completely abhorrent beyond all comprehension, people use those contracts/results and calculate a totally bloated figure. When you can't trade guys like that without including boat loads of cash if at all, I don't see how the figure can be used to judge what somebody is worth.

They definitely need to find offense somewhere, somehow. Not going to be easy by any stretch. Might have to make the painful decision to trade Woodruff or Hader but something has to be done. You can't count on Yelich or Hiura to simply rebound. Tried that this year and it went from bad to worse. It could happen but you have to take that as a bonus. Outside of a dominating series against the Indians, you take away the Pirates, Cubs and Rockies, and the team hit .218 with an OBP under .300. You aren't going to face the Pirates and the Cubs in the playoffs so the offense is going to have to improve to have any chance to advance.

I kind of get what you were saying, but I wasn't expecting Yelich and especially not Hiura, to carry the team this year. Hoping sure, but that's all.

How is that on Hader? How is that not on Hader? He has obviously told Counsell all year long he won't pitch more than one inning. Period.

Personally, I've lost pretty much all respect for Hader. I understand the talent, but with the season on the line, to be absolutely unwilling, which is quite obviously the case, to go more than one inning is completely unacceptable to me. Woodruff should have pitched the 8th, pinch hit and then Hader the 9th+. Perhaps the outcome wouldn't have changed and Hader would never have pitched but you can't just let him go one inning and then bring in who knows who for the 9th and beyond.

My guess is if the situation was reversed, 99 out of 100 would say it hit the ground. Which it obviously did.

Call him off Urias.

Looked like it caught the corner It did.

He need to take advantage, Charlie is tiring, or it would appear.

He was doing his Ben Oglivie impression.

Since our destruction of the Indians, we have done absolutely squat. That was exactly a month ago.